Fitting In
by UnknownTitans
Summary: ONESHOT - Starfire wonders if she will ever be able to fit into earthen society and decides that in order to do so she will need to make some changes to herself. Fortunately Robin begins to notice these changes and decides he needs to step in.


Starfire had been reading earthen literature ever since she arrived on the planet but now her attention seemed to be drawn to the fashion magazines that she saw were popular with a lot of the other women. She didn't really pay much attention to the clothes as they didn't really suit her Tamaranian dress sense but she seemed more and more to be focusing on the women modelling the clothes themselves. She did not understand how some women seemed to be so skinny and how they could possibly fit into such small sizes of clothing. When she first began reading them she paid little notice but now as more and more of the magazines seemed to have similar sized models she understood that this must be the normal size for earthen women.

Despite being proud of her Tamaranian heritage and culture she really did want to fit in on Earth and hopefully not be seen as an alien but instead be seen as just another of the population of Earth. She decided that if she wanted to accomplish this she would have to look like the 'normal' women in the magazines, by whatever means necessary.

* * *

Robin had noticed some fluctuations and change in Starfire's normally delightfully happy and cheery attitude for a few days now. She had stopped eating as much as she normally would, because of her 9 stomachs she could often eat the entire contents of a refrigerator with little help but now it seemed she was struggling to finish what was on her plate. The other Titans would often comment on this but she would usually just plaster a false smile on her face and simply state that she had ate a lot earlier which the others knew clearly that she hadn't, they wanted to ask her but decided she must not want to talk about it and so they wouldn't push.

Robin wanted desperately to ask her if something was wrong but he really didn't know how he would bring it up without sounding nosy or without upsetting her. He decided that he would give it a few more days and if her attitude still showed no sign of going back, then he would step in and confront her about it.

* * *

Starfire felt sick to her stomach almost all of the time ever since she reduced how much she ate to barely even 1 meal worth of food a day. Despite how little she ate her waistline didn't seem to be reducing like she had hoped it would. Instead it stayed the same and it just made her feel ill. She wanted desperately to rush into the kitchen and devour the entire contents of the refrigerator but she knew that would not help her in her quest to achieve a 'normal' waistline.

She also felt her mood was starting to plummet; she would notice the other Titans looking at her cautiously when they ate dinner as if one of them wanted to speak up but were all too timid to say anything. Robin was worst of all, he kept looking with a mix of sadness and concern at her whenever she stated that she was not hungry and it made her feel even worse about her new regime.

Maybe once she reached the size of the women in the magazines then Robin would stop looking at her with concern and instead would find her attractive, it was obvious from him not making a move already that her current weight must be what is holding him back. This thought only seemed to make her even sadder and lonelier than before.

* * *

After seeing Starfire's grouchiness and easy upset whenever someone mentioned to her about food or about anything really anymore that Robin needed to do something. He wanted to see his happy and cheery Starfire again, not some false husk of a personality that inhabited her now. As well as her personality she seemed to becoming much thinner than her already slim normal self and this is what was troubling him the most.

* * *

One night after Starfire refused to eat again Robin decided that enough was enough and there was something clearly very wrong and it needed to be fixed.

"Starfire, can I talk to you for a minute?" Robin asked nervously

"Of course friend" she replied attempting to be cheery despite her painful stomach ache

Robin led her out of the common room and towards her bedroom "you don't mind if we talk in your room do you? It's just that it's important"

"Yes, that is fine Robin" she replied sounding very confused at how important this matter could be to warrant discussing it in her bedroom.

Robin walked into her room and sat on the bed patting the space beside him, "Sit down Star"

She took her seat on the bed and looked at him expectantly.

"Starfire we need to talk about you not eating recently, I know you said before that you were fine but I don't think that is the case and I don't know why but for some reason you don't want to tells us why"

Starfire had expected one of them to bring it up to her at some point privately and so she plastered on her fake smile and made her false reply "I am fine Robin, I am merely not as hungry as I used to be." She paused thinking of something to stop his probing "I believe that it is part of the Tamaranian life cycle that as adolescents we do not require as much food as we do when we are children" she lied hoping that it would be enough

It seemed to be a well thought out reason but he knew her too well to know that she was saying this to stop him from asking. He decided that he would pretend to accept it and judge her reaction. "Okay Star, but you would tell me if there was something wrong right?" he said with a sad frown on his face.

Starfire felt waves of guilt flood through her.

"We-I am really worried about you Star. You haven't been as cheery or as happy as normal and it breaks my heart to see you unhappy" he said as heartfelt as he could

His last response seemed to burst the dam and the guilt and disgust for making Robin worry about her made her head droop and tears to spill from her eyes. "I am so sorry Robin" she sobbed "I am not as you say 'the fine' I am very not fine".

* * *

Upon seeing the tears began to spill from her eyes he quickly wrapped his arms tightly around the girl as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Shhh Star, it's okay" he said stroking her back comfortingly. After a while he leant back and tilted her head up with his hand, "now Star, can you please tell me whatever it is that's wrong? I can help fix it if you tell me"

She nodded meekly and walked over to her table before picking up a magazine and then handing it to Robin.

"A magazine Star?" he asked confused

She nodded once again and flicked through the pages until she found the one with the models on it. "Those women are what are considered the 'normal' on this planet and I wanted to look like them so that I could fit in more on this planet." She paused, more tears spilling down her face "But no matter how much I try to look like them I cannot achieve it"

Robin gently took the magazine back and began looking over the models in it, realisation dawning on him as he understood why Starfire had not being eating recently.

"They are also far more beautiful than I am" she added seemingly giving into the self-deprecation

The women certainly had smaller waistlines than Starfire did but to say that they were more beautiful than she, was a crime that deserved the death penalty. He couldn't understand how Starfire could see herself as anything less than having a thousand times better looks than the girls in this magazine. But then he remembered who he was talking about; Starfire was probably the most humble person he had ever met in his life and so of course she wouldn't see herself as beautiful unless someone told her. Realising this he decided that this was exactly what he was going to do.

"Starfire that is a lie" he said sternly. She looked up to him questioningly. "You are a thousand times more beautiful than those girls." He said tossing the magazine across the room in disgust.

Starfire's heart fluttered in her chest and she wanted to make sure that he actually believed what he said "You think I am beautiful?" she asked hopefully

Robin mentally scoffed at her question "You aren't just beautiful Star, you are breath-taking. I've never met anyone who could compare to you Star". He didn't care what he was admitting here, she was upset and she needed the truth.

Before Robin could even say one of the hundreds of compliments he could give to her, he found that her lips had been firmly sealed to his. His eyes widened in shock but he quickly realised what was happening and wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and pulled her closer. After what seemed like forever Robin pulled back panting and looked at the glistening emerald eyes of the girl in front of him, with her arms still tightly wound around his shoulder. "I find you most handsome as well Robin and I thank you greatly for your compliment"

"No need to thank me for telling the truth" he said giving her another soft kiss

After pulling away Starfire smiled brightly and looked up at the boy wonder "I think my appetite has returned now and I would very much like something to eat Robin"

"Good" Robin chuckled "Cos I'm taking you to the pizza place and you're gonna eat every damn pizza they've got" he said with a wide laughing grin as he grabbed the giggling girl's hand and dragged her out of her room and towards the elevator.

 **The End**

* * *

 **PSA:** Self-image is a big issue for a lot of young people in the world today and I hope that people understand that no matter what you look like or how big or small your waistline is. Someone will think you are beautiful and what's more important is finding that someone who does think like that. Please don't do any crazy diets of starving yourself in order to make yourself thinner. Starving yourself doesn't work because if you don't eat your body will go into a hibernation style mode where instead your body will store a lot more energy from food and use a lot less which means that you will stay the same weight but you will be miserable.

If your weight is affecting your health or is making you unhappy then make sure to do something about it, but if you are a little overweight but it doesn't affect/bother you then that is great and keep being happy.

Thanks for reading this PSA, I really wish everyone knew this stuff but sadly a lot of young people are easily peer pressured into thinking that how they look isn't okay or acceptable and that they need to change when most of the time the person is perfectly fine as they are.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Hope you enjoyed this one-shot. Came up with the idea whilst I was making something to eat at 4am and so I decided to get it wrote up as soon as possible.

The next few chapters of "Moving Forward" will be up very soon so don't panic. I am uploading 2 or more at a time depending on much I have wrote so there will be plenty to read. Whilst I am writing chapters for that, I will also be uploading one-shots like this so that if you don't like the chaptered story then you will still have something to read.

Please leave a review telling me what you thought!


End file.
